[Dovecot] Internal Error - Cannot select inbox

[Eric Beda]

Hi,

I am new to this list although i have been using dovecot for some time
now, i've come accross this error when a user tries to log in

* OK Dovecot ready.
1 login username password
1 OK Logged in.
1 select inbox
1 NO Internal error occurred. Refer to server log for more information.
[2007-12-07 12:51:56]

there are no errors reported in the log files related to that issue for
both dovecot.log and maillog

what i do receive in the log files is

dovecot: Dec 07 12:55:46 Info: imap-login: Login: user=<username at domain>,
method=PLAIN, rip=::ffff:127.0.0.1, lip=::ffff:127.0.0.1, secured
dovecot: Dec 07 12:55:46 Info: IMAP(username at domain): Effective uid=500,
gid=500
dovecot: Dec 07 12:55:46 Info: IMAP(aadu at uccmail.co.tz): mbox:
data=/var/spool/mail/vmail/domain/username:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/vmail/domain/username/Inbox:INDEX=/var/spool/mail/vmail/domain/username:home=/var/spool/mail/vmail/domain/username/.imap/.imap
dovecot: Dec 07 12:55:46 Info: IMAP(aadu at uccmail.co.tz): mbox:
root=/var/spool/mail/vmail/domain/username,
index=/var/spool/mail/vmail/domain/username,
inbox=/var/spool/mail/vmail/domain/username/Inbox
dovecot: Dec 07 12:55:46 Info: IMAP(username at domain): Disconnected

i can't seem to pinpoint what is going wrong, some things to note

i have existing users who can read email succesfully, its when i create a
new user via postfixadmin, one should note that all directories are
created and owned by vmail whose gid and uid is 500 and for the new users
the directories and mboxes are created succesfully, but even if i copy
over a working inbox of previous user to new user i still get an error so
i don't think it is an mbox formatting issue

another thing is that i can successfully check mail using mutt facility,
even sending using mail clients (outlook express) is possible

other configurations that might be helpful

# dovecot --version
1.0.rc15

#cat /etc/group |grep vmail
dovecot:x:97:vmail
vmail:x:500:dovecot

# /etc/dovecot.conf
log_path: /var/log/dovecot.log
protocols: pop3 pop3s imap imaps
ssl_disable: yes
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable(default): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(imap): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(pop3): /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login
mail_location:
mbox:/var/spool/mail/vmail/%d/%n:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/vmail/%d/%n/Inbox:INDEX=/var/spool/mail/vmail/%d/%n:home=/var/spool/mail/vmail/%d/%n/.imap/.imap
mail_debug: yes
maildir_copy_with_hardlinks: yes
mbox_min_index_size: 200
mail_executable(default): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(imap): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(pop3): /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3
mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3
auth default:
  mechanisms: plain login
  passdb:
    driver: pam
  passdb:
    driver: sql
    args: /etc/dovecot/dovecot-mysql.conf
  userdb:
    driver: sql
    args: /etc/dovecot/dovecot-mysql.conf
  socket:
    type: listen
    client:
      path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth
      mode: 432
      user: postfix
      group: postfix
    master: